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No Mercy (2004)
No Mercy (2004) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It took place on October 3, 2004, at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It was the seventh annual No Mercy event, and featured eight professional wrestling matches on the event's card. The buildup to the matches and the scenarios that took place before, during, and after the event were planned by WWE's script writers. The event starred wrestlers from the SmackDown! brand: a storyline expansion of the promotion where employees are assigned to a wrestling brand under the WWE banner. The main event was a Last Ride match, where the objective was to place an opponent in a hearse located on the entrance stage and drive them out of the arena. WWE Champion John "Bradshaw" Layfield defeated The Undertaker in this match to retain his title. Two predominant bouts were featured on the undercard; in respective singles matches, John Cena defeated Booker T to win the WWE United States Championship, and The Big Show defeated Kurt Angle. Storylines The event featured eight professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed either a villainous or fan favorite gimmick as they followed a series of events which generally built tension, leading to a wrestling match. All wrestlers were from the SmackDown! brand – a storyline division in which WWE assigned its employees to a different program, the other being Raw. The main event featured WWE Champion John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) defending the title against The Undertaker in a match where the objective is to place an opponent in a hearse located on the entrance stage and drive them out of the arena, dubbed a Last Ride match. The buildup to the match began after SummerSlam, where JBL defeated the Undertaker in a standard wrestling match, also called a singles match, via disqualification to retain his championship. During that week on an episode of SmackDown!, JBL wore a neck brace, to signify that he was recuperating from a chokeslam that the Undertaker gave him on top of his limo. On the August 26, 2004 episode of SmackDown!, Orlando Jordan, one of JBL's associates, defended the WWE Championship for JBL against the Undertaker. Undertaker won the match via disqualification following interference from JBL; as a result, JBL retained the title. Two weeks later, General Manager Theodore Long, a fictitious match maker and rules enforcer, announced that Undertaker would get another opportunity for JBL's title at No Mercy in a Last Ride match. One of the featured matches was contested for the WWE United States Championship, in which Booker T defended the title against John Cena. At SummerSlam, Cena defeated Booker in the first match of a "best of five" series. On the August 26 episode of SmackDown!, the second match was won by Booker, to even the series one-to-one. The following night at a SmackDown! live event, Booker defeated Cena to win the third match. On the September 16 episode of SmackDown!, Cena defeated Booker in the fourth match, making the series even at two wins apiece. The following week it was announced that the final series title match would be scheduled at No Mercy. The other featured preliminary match was Kurt Angle versus The Big Show in a singles match. The buildup to the match began on September 9, 2004 during an episode of SmackDown!, where a Lumberjack match (a standard match where non-participating wrestlers prevent contestants from fleeing the ring) was scheduled between Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero. The match ended in a no contest when The Big Show marked his return to SmackDown! by interfering in the match, chokeslamming both Angle and Guerrero in the process. The following week, Big Show was given two contracts to choose from; one contract to face Guerrero and one contract to face Angle. Big Show signed the contract with Guerrero's name on it. After signing it, Angle and his associate Luther Reigns, threw Guerrero out of the ring and offered Big Show a handshake. Big Show, however, tore up Guerrero's contract and signed the one with Angle's name on it to face him at No Mercy. Aftermath Following No Mercy, the storyline between JBL and The Undertaker ended. JBL was then placed in a new angle against Booker T. On an episode of SmackDown!, a six-man tag team match involving Booker T, Rob Van Dam, and Rey Mysterio taking on JBL, Kenzo Suzuki, and René Duprée was scheduled. At the time, Booker T being a villain, congratulated JBL with the success that he has accomplished within the company in a segment backstage. The tag team match got underway, and JBL was led to believe that Booker was going to betray his tag partners, as Booker warned both Van Dam and Mysterio not to interfere with him during the match. The match concluded with Booker pinning JBL for the win, thus turning Booker into a crowd favorite. The following week on SmackDown!, Booker defeated Orlando Jordan, JBL's associate, to earn the right to face JBL for the WWE Championship at Survivor Series. At Survivor Series, JBL defeated Booker to retain the WWE title. On the October 21 episode of SmackDown!, Paul Heyman requested that Theodore Long schedule a match between Heidenreich and the Undertaker at Survivor Series. Long agreed to the match, but informed Heyman that in order for the match to take place, he had to get the Undertaker to sign the contract personally. The following week, Heyman met the Undertaker at an undisclosed location where he pleaded his case about Heidenreich wanting to face the Undertaker in a match. The Undertaker signed the contract and warned Heyman he would defeat Heidenreich at Survivor Series. At the November event, the Undertaker was successful in defeating Heidenreich. Following his win at No Mercy, John Cena lost the WWE United States Championship to Carlito Caribbean Cool, who debuted on SmackDown!. As part of the storyline, Carlito was given a bodyguard, Jesús, who stabbed Cena in the kidney while at a Boston-area nightclub. On the November 18 episode of SmackDown!, Cena captured the United States Championship after defeating Carlito for it. Cena later debuted a "custom made" spinner-style title belt in December at Armageddon 2004 in a Street Fight against Jesús Results Other on-screen personnel See also * List of WWE pay-per-view events * No Mercy Category:No Mercy Category:2004 Pay-Per-View Events Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events